BDS Australia* is a coalition of pro-Palestine associations, dedicated to informing and raising awareness in the Australian community in support of a just peace for the Palestinian people.

We do this primarily by organising and implementing Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiatives as part of a growing international peaceful and non-violent effort to pressure the state of Israel to end the illegal Occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza and to respect the rights of all Palestinians according to international law and human rights conventions.

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. It is based on the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

Palestinians have attempted to have their rights reinstated throughout decades of political negotiations. However the Oslo “Peace Process” of 1993, which was meant to achieve milestones within five years, has not yet achieved any of its objectives. However, from 1993 to the present, illegal settlement growth in the Occupied Territories has intensified, thousands of Palestinians are still imprisoned and the Gaza Strip has been under a crippling blockade since 2006.

As a result of the failed peace process and the continuing Israeli Occupation and denial of basic rights to Palestinians living in Israel, the Occupied Territories and as refugees elsewhere throughout the world, Palestinian civil society organisations, inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in 2005.

The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, political parties, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies.

BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements throughout the world. Eleven years since its launch, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.